Garage Door Safety Sensors Troubleshooting - Complete 3 Step Guide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2020
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A very common issue with a garage door that won't close is a problem with the garage door safety sensors. This is indicated by the garage door not going down when the remote or wall controller is pressed and the garage door opener light flashing 10 times. Don't worry this is not a huge deal and following the below 3 steps I am confident we can find your issue and get it fixed.
Troubleshooting Steps
Step 1) Adjustment, Cleaning, and Checking for Signal
Step 2) Checking the Wiring
Step 3) Checking if the Sensors are Bad
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DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Lenny - As a first time owner of a garage, I panicked when the door would not close using the key pad. I found your video which described the issue perfectly. Added bonus the easy fix worked! Thank you very much for saving me a lot of grief.
3 minutes into your video and I knew the problem - now my garage door sensor is back in alignment and works perfectly! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Excellent, clear video! I especially liked step #3 - testing the sensors by connecting them directly to the unit. When I did this, I saw -- for the first time -- that the receiving sensor was functional. After watching your video, I was finally able to troubleshoot and get my garage door working like it's supposed to, for the first time in years. Thank you!
Had the same experience, though it was the sending sensor that had faulty wiring...
As a first time and new home owner, the first step actually saved me a ton of headache. My wife accidentally bumped the sensor when moving stuff in the garage. Thanks for this!
This was excellently produced -- clear, steady, detailed presentation; clear audio and video, with a good view of the essential parts; no extra fluff in the narrative.
I just wanted to THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!! I am 64 and live in an apartment complex and the unattached garage I rent stopped working one way (down). Its way after hours and I called maintenance twice to no avail. So I Googled and found your video and FIXED IT !! I just had to thank you!!!!!!!
Thank you! It was step #2 for me. My husband was ready to call a garage door person because he doesn’t have time to do it himself. I’m so happy that I could save us some money and him the stress.
Omg. I just wowed my husband magically fixing our garage door. Thank you! You are a life saver
Hi. Phenomenal videos. All of them! I’ve Been watching for a few days now. I’m going to tackle this tomorrow. For the first time I understand what I’ll be doing. Seems so simple, even the wiring. My husband (fixed anything) passed and I’m having all sorts of breakdowns in the house. So far I have been able to use your videos and not call in the big $$ guys. Thank you. I appreciate all this.
Hi Denise, I am sorry to hear of your husband's passing and happy to help in any way I can. I wish you all the best and hope the breakdowns start to slow down. If you live in a region where you experience the 4 seasons I would test out your furnace soon to ensure you don't have any issues when the cold weather moves in and the HVAC companies are super busy. Just simply turning your thermostat to heat, increasing the desired temperature higher than the room temperature will "exercise" your system and you can see if the furnace burners light, blower fan turns on , and warm air is moved through your vents.
@@EverydayHomeRepairs It's so thoughtful of you to share that info. I'm in a similar spot as Denise and appreciate your kindness.
2:58 “You can easily hit this with a garbage can” - that’s exactly what I did and I found your video and just adjusted the wing nut like you said, and voila!! Fixed! Thanks so much!!
Thanks! Your video actually answered questions that somehow all of the installation videos I watched did not. A big help.
This was such a great and helpful video. Thanks for explaining things clearly and respectfully for your audience. Step two did the trick for me!
Great video - methodical and clear. You saved me the money and embarrassment of calling a garage door company for a one minute fix.
Thank you for this video. Got to Step 2 & found the problem. Amber light on, green light off and amber sensor pointed in downward position. Readjusted and cleaned sensors. We are back in business!
Thanks. Mine was a 20 year old twisted wire connection at the sensor with no wire nut and only electrical tape. Got lucky. Found your easy to follow video first.
Step 1 solved my problem. This video was very well done, very straight forward, thorough and easy to follow. Thank you.
I agree! I went thru so many videos trying to figure out what was wrong! I was thinking it was a sensor positioning issue or base settings. It turned out that my sensor lights were on but i had a bad wiring connection. I jiggled the wires wires and one connection came apart (two wires). Thank you so much for this video!! Great job!!
Thanks! Very helpful. It's pretty much what I thought it was, but you made it easier to debug. I was originally thinking I'd have to trip a breaker to check my connections, but gees, just unplug the damn thing! Duh! I had a bad censor, but fortunately I had another set of censors from a previous garage door replacement several years ago. Swapped em out, installed some new brackets for the new censors and I'm back in business. Thanks again for the clear troubleshooting guide.
Thanks for this video. The best of what TH-cam is about. In my case the wiring was bad. Could not have fixed it myself without the help of this video. I bought sensors first thinking that was the problem. How often does wiring go bad...
Awesome!!! I had a wire problem right behind one of the sensors. And I almost called a technician to come fix it. Thanx to you.
Excellent suggestions of step 1-2-3. Your comment on wiping the sensor lens and wiggling the wires at both ends fixed the issue for me! As well as your other video on updating the code. Thanks for saving me some $$.
Long time viewer, finally followed you. Just fixed mine thanks to your video. Mine was a bit different as it would sometimes flash right away, but many other time, it will lower part way then go up and flash to times. Other times, it will close fine. Turns out, it was sorta step 2. For me, one of the pairs of wires twisted together was not pushed into the opener correctly. So, it was temperamental. If it shook/torqued just right, it would lose connection for a brief second, garage door will go up. That is why my LEDs would stay lit, and maybe you will see it flicker while it was lowering and it would go up and flash 10 times.
Excellent video. I wiggled the wire and the light blinked so I knew a had a wire problem, just like you said. Took the wire nut off, twisted, put it back on, and it works! Amazing!
Thank you very much. I was ready to completely rewire my entire garage until I cleaned off the sensors. You rock buddy
Just had one of my garage doors stop working (again). I had already replace the sensors once, and was about to head to the big box store for another set of sensors when I happened upon your video. Sure enough, this time it was a poor connection to the motor itself. As I had just had to replace the travel module board, I must have jostled the wires when replacing the board. Thanks for the concise video - you saved me a trip to you know where, and much time and frustration!
Thanks so much! Mine was the common alignment problem. Well done video and easy to follow.
I looked at it and it was helpful. I live alone and didn't know about the sensors . Thank you
Thanks, this helped me remember what to do with misalignment. And great organized video.
Thank you so very much friend for this nice troubleshooting walk-though. I have been living with this issue for few months now until this past weekend when your video helped me troubleshoot and finally got it working again .
After the initial steps of checking out the sensors and connecting wires behind them , I didn't go as far to take off the sensors but it turned out that I had some wire nuts up above the opener that had wires connecting the opened to the sensors. And just wiggling them a bit did the trick. Apparently one of them got loose and wires were not making proper contact but just re-tightened them and voila the opener is back in action now. So please make sure to check those out as well.
I literally have a un-opened Genie box sitting at home which I was going to install but now will be returning instead :) So THANK YOU once again.
Bad wire connection. Direct hookup to test the sensor definitely save me some headache. Thank you!
I'm heading out to garage as soon as I complete my comment. This is great. My opener works sometimes, and other times it doesn't. The error light on the opener tells me there is an issue with the safety sensors. Now I know how to troubleshoot before I run and buy new sensors. Thank-you so much.
Before I leave, I'm hitting the "like" and "subscribe" buttons.
What do ya know? It appears the wires at the opener, although in the right place, were making a poor, inconsistent connection. I came to that conclusion because, when I wiggled the wires, the error light started flashing indicating sensor issues. I pulled the wires, trimmed the length of the pigtail and re-twisted, and re-inserted the pigtails. The door seems to be working just fine now. Time will tell.
🤞 glad you got it fixed!
Thank you so much for this video. Thumps up. I noticed one of my sensors was not aligned. It really worked! Problem fixed. Money saved!
Great video. Enjoyed how you broke it down into smaller bite size sections for troubleshooting. Well done.
I definitely like your video/instructions/illustrations because I was able to insert my sensor wiring correctly and replaced my battery on the keypad & programmed successfully! My only issue is when I did the Reverse test with the 2x4, it stayed on top of the board. But when I put my foot in the sensor cross path, it did reverse.
What if I have a solid green and solid orange and it's throwing the error 'Sensor obstructed or misaligned' code (up 4 arrows down 6 on unit).
Successfully fixed - it was just the sensor that got knocked. Thank you! Great video
Well done ! Authoritative, informative, clear explanation.
Thanks so much for this, tried the first solution and it worked. All I had to do was to clean and realign the sensors. I’m glad I watched your video.
Thanks so much for this! I knocked off the sensors and wiring when cleaning and was able to fix this myself! 😊
Fantastic. Your channel just saved me another $200 charge when all we needed was to do a 5 minute rewire job. Perfect!
Very nice step to step explanation of the problem. Thanks a lot . It made my job much easier.
This was a great video! I literally fixed my garage door in two minutes as it was the sensor just like he said. Thanks saved me a lot of money!!
You’re life saver! Thank you so much! I fixed my non closing garage door because I watched your video! 😊
Thanks for helping me. As a single woman I hate to call someone because it's expensive. After watching this followed your directions and it started working. Just had to align the sensors don't know why because the power had gone off and didn't work when it came back on but you where a big help.
Funny story. My garage door has been doing this light blinking thing most of the time for more than a year. Closing seemed to work on high humidity days - which added to confusion of the issue. I watched a few videos and tried a few things. All failed to resolve the issue. The videos and other Internet sources stated the issue was most likely that rodents had chewed the wires. I watched this video and decided to give the sensors a good cleaning since you said that was most likely the issue. Taa daaa!! I had cleaned the sensors before but this time I used soap and water. I suspect that oil/gas had dripped on the sending sensor so the soap was needed to return it to full functionality. THANKS!!
Thank You. I didn’t know what to clean the sensors with.
Hi, I have the same liftmaster door opener and it flashes also 10 times. I haven’t cleaned the sensor yet will do it tomorrow.. but both lights are on ..... when I’m outside the garage, and use the outside panel, the door sometimes closes and sometimes not. And with remote control I am only able to open it. I have a panel inside the garage which is the “smart Conrol panel” that is always off. I think I should at least see the clock and all but it’s all off.. I haven’t seen the smart control panel in your video .. what’s your thoughts?
Thank you! You helped me fix my garage door opener that's been giving me trouble for years! Actually, everything appeared to be lined up correctly, sending & receiving correctly, the wiring was good. My problem was that although the receiver was receiving and the light was on, it wasn't quite as strong as it could have been. So, I just had to finagle the alignment a little more to get a stronger signal. But, your videos were very succinct and straightforward, filled with practical and easy to follow steps. I very much appreciated it!
Thank you for the video @everydayhomerepair.. @LulaMiller. Thank you for this comment. Everything was fine with mine as well. I also tried adjusting my sensors. Still, nothing. But I was sure you were on to something with adjusting the sensors. And then... 💡. I decided to measure my sensors to see if they were equal height. Sure enough, they were off by a few inches. Once I got them to measure equal distance from the ground up, my issue was solved. 🙂
Thank you thank you for showing that unscrew method to proper align. After one hour and other videos watched, this solved my issue! 🎉
Just found your site & subscribed... looks interesting!
Just a minor thought on wire nuts... if you always leave them pointing 'up' (with the wiring entering from below), they'll act 'umbrella' like and keep them from collecting debris, water etc..
Mine was actually the connection of the wires down at the sensors. I had to unscrew the wire connection caps, clean the wires, then reconnect. This video did help a lot by giving information on how the safety sensors work when the leds should be on or off.
I'm trying to troubleshoot mine, the transmitter wont light up orange when I connected it local to the opener,, however I only measure 6 volts at the terminal block, whether the sensors are connecred or not. (It says 24v on the unit). It's a sears unit. What should the voltage be?
You kept it beautifully simple and we (me and my garage) are back in business. Thank you!! 😊
A nice succinct comprehensive troubleshooting tutorial. Thanks. Nicely done.
Thank You! My husband could figure it our, I watched your video and fixed it!
Thank you for this very helpful video, straightforward solid solution
The sensors!!! I have Been holding down the wall button then exiting through my front door for 6 months! I was like.. I can do this I can figure it out! Well I couldn’t have figured it out but found this video and my problem is solved! Thank you! I had to aligned the sensors.
Found a loose wire in the opener itself. Your video helped a lot. Thanks so much for the advice
Hi,
My garage door only works if I hold the button down.
I checked the sensors. Amber light seems fine. The green receiving light is on but a bit faint and flickers like a fluorescent. Does that indicate wiring or a bad sensor?
So, after watching some of your tips. I had a green light on one side & a red light on the other Legacy Garage door. It wanted to act as if, something was there. But, yet clear path. So, after moving them some & cleaning the lens they are working again. Sometimes taking the easy steps first work. Thanks for sharing your advice to!
Wires on my receiving end were sheered. Cut, stripped, and reconnected with a wire nut. Thanks for the info that helped me troubleshoot the cause
My garage door would not close. Your video helped me figure out the problem. Thank you very much!!
Thanks this helped me narrow my problem down to the connection not the receiving sensor. Fixed!! Also saved me $300 minimum bc I didn’t have to call out the garage door company on weekend call out.
Thanks for this video demonstration. My garage door would do the 10 flashes when I was leaving and wouldn't go down. So, I'd have to get out the car and let it down with the keypad on the garage. I just checked and one of my sensors was knocked off alignment. I guess when my son put the pail down the contains the salt for winter, he hit the sensor. So now it's fixed! 😊
Thank You solved the issue, glad you explained about one sensor sending and another receiving ... important detail... Have a Merry Christmas ... Arthur
Thanks bro. I unplugged and then shook the wires. Great video. Thank you sincerely!
Cheers
So I have a weird problem that my garage door keeps closing even if somebody comes in between the sensor, it will not stop and keeps closing. I see it as a safety issue in case a kid comes in the middle. The door will not stop. I do have sensors and they sent something as I can feel a little hesitation on the door, but it keeps on closing what could be the issue?
Mine was a loose wire at the garage door opener. That was maddening!!! Thanks man.
Appreciate the feedback!
I fallowed your instructions step by step and I fixed my problem. Thank you!
This is GREAT video.... Well done. We all appreciate you
Thank you so much, I had spent hours trying to figure why my remote wouldn't close the door, even ordered a replacement that wouldn't work either. I checked the wiring and sure enough one had come away and I reattached it and gave a yell as it worked.
Thank you for your straightforward video. I was able to get my door working properly at step 1. 😅
It was some combo of cleaning the lens and wiggling the cable. Thanks for an easy to follow video / solution
You just scored me some brownie points with the wifey. Thanks for the clear and concise troubleshooting.
I just want to say big thank you. I used your instructions to fix my garage door.
Happy to help 🙌
Hi, thank you for providing this video. I’ve had issues with my sensors not allowing my door to close when the sun is out. The sun beams on that side of the house and is so frustrating to be able to open the door from the wall control but once I’m out I can’t get the door to close. The lights on the garage door opener just blinks several times telling me there is something in the way when there isn’t. Any recommendations on how I can address blocking the sun from the sensors?
Awesome video! Adjusted the sensor and the light came back on and I am one happy guy!
May I ask a question? if my green and amber light both steady on, does it means my sensor and wire both fine?
Great video. Went through all the troubleshooting. My sensors work when aligned at the opener but not at the door. Ran all new wiring and lights are they should be. Any ideas???
Thank you. Very easy fix as you described. Saved me a service call.
I see the green light on the flat side of that sensor, but it doesn’t seem to shine well from the end towards the red sensor (mirror side?). Bad sensor? It seem clean enough. I replaced the battery on the opener. No flashing light or action when I try to close the door.
Thanks, great video. Saved me $30 as I thought the sensors were shot but it was just some bad wiring.
It’s does solved my problem! Very useful guidance! Thank you so much !!
Excellent! Thank you very much - Step 1 was a revelation and that solved it 👍👍
Excellent tutorial, easy to follow with confidence.
Most helpful video I found! I fixed the garage door!
thanks for your help the viedo will help thousand of people who have problem with there garage door
I have old lift master opener, I have no indication that there is any voltage at the safety sensors. I checked the voltage at the control box, and have no voltage at the white and grey terminals. Is this problem repairable or should I get a new opener?
why the keypad or the remote can only work to open the garage door, not closing it? Thank you.
Thank you soo much as I cleaned the sensors and readjusted 1 of them since it wasn't getting any signal. I thought it was going bad but either my mom or dog knocked it out of place. 😂😂😂
I've checked these 3 things but my Craftsman garage door will not open or close-makes a click sound when button pushed. Also, the light does not come on when I trip the sensors as if the door were open for a while, light has gone out and then turns on when you walk thru the "beam"--bulb is good. I have 2 garage door openers that stopped working (same symptoms) at the same time after a thunderstorm last night. Did something get fried inside the unit itself? Finally, both units flash 4 amber lights in a row and internet says sensor alignment issue--but this is not the case as I have both amber and green light fully lit on the sensors.
When I plug in the sending unit the amber light is on, when I plug in the receiving unit; not only does the green light not go on but my amber light goes out.
I think I have a bad receiving sensor but don’t want to buy a new one unless I can confirm it’s indeed the receiving sensor and not an issue at the opener. Any insight?
was having rough day and garage decided to do this, easy fix thank you
Thank you for this video. I was able to get my sensors realigned. I think I hit it when I rolled the trash can out.
Could I make a short at the garage door opener motor where the 2 sensor wires connect for a temp bypass while I wait for my new sensor to be replaced?
Fixed it thanks to your tips Everyday.
Thanks,
Question on my craftsman GDO! Sensors on GDO works ok, THEN after the door is down the sensor light eventually go off. When I open the GDO again the sensors light up. Any thoughts?
Excellent. Simple and to the point.
I tried your suggestions on my Craftsman and it still doesn't work. I also put in another motherboard, no luck. The (brand new) green sensor lights up but the other only lights up for a few minutes after I plug the unit back in. Then the door will go up and down. But eventually the amber sensor goes out after a few minutes and the door will not go down. Do you have any suggestions s to what could be causing this problem?
I've just replaced the sensors to the house that I just moved into and were working fine for two days. For some reason none of the leds are even lit now. When I checked the voltage I was getting .4 volts on terminal 2 and 3, when I removed the sensors from the terminals I was reading 6 voltage. Do I need to replace the receiver board?
We've been messing with our door for over a month now. Maybe prayer first helped. It's working!! One sensor was yellow, the other 0 light. I wiped them both down and tada!! Thanks for the video!!